Tracklisting:

1) Lost (Season One) – Camp Cope
2) Johnny – Basement Revolver
3) Can U Hear Me Now? – Porridge Radio
4) All 4s – ARMS
5) If You’re on the Water – The Saxophones
6) In Ribbons – Psychic Shakes
7) a good pet – Real Swell
8) Breadcrumbs – The Perennials
9) Father is a Craftsman – Modern Studies
10) Aligning With the Sun – Dear Tracks
11) Cake Bath – Cloud Cover
12) Postdoc Blues – John K. Samson
13) Room For Love – Wooden Dinosaur
14) Crab Line – Trust Fund
15) 1 – Young Jesus
16) Life’s Rough – Serial Chiller
17) Never Lonely – Space Mountain
18) I Wish I Was Plural – Free Space
19) More Than Science – Sunshine Faces
20) Maya – Competition
21) Fireball – Albosel
22) It Hurts- A Day Without Love
23) That Went Well- Guppy
24) Kids Playing Outside – Almanac Mountain
25) Patience To Undo the Patience – Psalmships

You can check out the previous monthly roundups here, and our various other playlists and mixtapes here. Be sure to pop back throughout September and beyond to see what autumn brings!

The post August 2016 Roundup appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Describing their sound as landscape pop, Modern Studies utilise “analogue synths, cello, double bass, drums, guitars, a wine-glass orchestra and, at the creaking centre of things, a Victorian pedal harmonium.” This harmonium proves to be paramount for the band, a source of influence not just musically but also aesthetically, the instrument’s storied history and mysterious air diffusing into the songs at a subconscious level. And its not hard to see why. Take, for example, the bands description of this antique:

“Slowly but surely the harmonium gives up its provenance. Cigarette cards of moustachioed soldiers tucked between the keys, a Miss Havisham drape of cobwebs, a selection of foxed and edgeworn song-sheets, and a short hand-written history of a short life.”

Working at Pumpkinfield (Harvey’s studio in rural Perthshire) and developing songs from Scott inspired “largely from the salt and spray of the sea”, the band produced a debut album, Swell to Great, which is being released on Song, by Toad Records.

While we have to wait until September for the full record, the band have unveiled the first single, ‘Father is a Craftsman’. The song fuses the nostalgia of classic folk with sweet and sunny pop melodies all imbued with a sense of narrative and history. I like to think this is a subconscious result of the harmonium, it’s past haunting the songs by it mere presence.

“Father is a craftsman from a long long line
mother swims in the winter time
brother oh my brother is faraway”

Swell to Great is due on the 12th of September and you can pre-order it now via Song, By Toad Records. You can also check out two other tracks from the album there too.

Photo credit: Jannica Honey

The post Modern Studies announce debut album on Song, By Toad appeared first on Various Small Flames.